Trainer Biography
Kimberly Beckstead LCSW
Kimberly Beckstead is a LCSW. Her clinical experience is diverse. Over the past 11 years Kimberly has worked with a wide range of populations. Starting out as a DBT Coach working with pervasive personality disorders, adults with chronic pervasive mental illness as a case manager, then served as the Older Adult Lead Clinician at a county contracted mental health clinic, to a Clinical Supervisor at the Substance Abuse Counseling Program on base at MCAS Miramar, to a Program Manager of the Marine Intercept Program at Marine Corps Community Services where she provided comprehensive care coordination and safety assessment of active duty service members at high risk for suicide. At present, Kimberly is working as a Suicide Prevention Coordinator for the Veterans Health Administration at the VA hospital in La Jolla.
In addition to her full time work in mental health, Kimberly started concurrently training professionals, agencies and systems throughout San Diego about 10 years ago. She was one of five co-founders of the San Diego Trauma Informed Guide Team (TGIT) and the Chair of the Training Committee for approximately 5 years. As the TIGT grew, Kimberly volunteered her time to provide well over 100 trainings throughout San Diego County and Riverside County. Kimberly has since continued to train throughout the county as a private consultant. Kimberly has found her niche in the world of pervasive mental illness, complex childhood trauma and suicidology . Her trainings aim to integrate the complicated relationship between adverse childhood experiences, mental health and human behavior; unpacking how this translates into the clinician’s experience providing direct care, in their respective work settings. As a trainer, Kimberly has been described as animated and passionate, with a quick wit and robust sense of humor. Kimberly encourages outside the box thinking, lively discussions and strives to incorporate using the trauma informed lens in all that she does.